382 
26 

py 1 



k.. 



JACKSON'S LL.D. 



A TEMPEST m A TEA-POT. 



BY 



ANDREW McFARLAND DAVIS. 





Clnss _ "^ 



i'RKsi:.vn:i) hy 



/ 



JACKSON'S LL.D. 



A TEMPEST IN A TEA-POT. 



BY 



ANDREW McFARLAND DAVIS. 

'I 




[Reprinted from the Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical 

Society, December, 1906.] 



CAMBEIDGE: 
JOHN WILSON AND SON. 

1907. 




Gift 

Author 
(Ptrton) 

4F'07 



JACKSON'S LL.D.-A TEMPEST IN A TEAPOT. 



From 1780 to 1880 inclusive, the gubernatorial chair of the 
State of Massachusetts was filled by twenty-eight persons, 
each of whom, with the exception of Increase Sumner, who was 
governor from 1797 to 1799, received from Harvard College, 
either before or during his term of service, the degree of 
LL.D. By far the greater number of these degrees was con- 
ferred at the first Commencement after the incumbent was 
inducted into office. Many of the governors were elected 
from year to year, and were present at Commencements on 
several successive occasions, passive spectators after their offi- 
cial presence had been once thus recognized. The effect of 
this was of course that the number of degrees thus conferred 
was much smaller than the years of service ; but an analysis of 
the records shows that out of the twenty-eight persons who 
held the office of governor of Massachusetts during this period, 
twenty-three were made honorary Doctors of Law by Harvard 
College simply because they were governors of the State, 
tliat four when elected had already received the degree, and 
that of the whole number one alone was not thus honored. 

The election of Benjamin F. Butler in 1883 furnished an 
opportunity for those who were opposed to this custom to 
break away from it, and since his day no governor of Massa- 
chusetts has received a degree while in office as a part of the 
regular Commencement exercises. It is true, a degree was 
conferred upon Butler's successor, while governor, but it was 
on the occasion of the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary 
of the founding of the college and not on Commencement day, 
and was not a purely ex officio degree. 

Those familiar with the early history of the college, when 
it was constantly assisted by the colony and was to all intents 
and purposes a State institution, will understand why it was 



practically regarded as under the tutelage of the State long 
after it had ceased to require governmental aid for its support. 
Down to the year 1866 the graduates of the college had no 
voice in the appointment of the Board of Overseers. In the 
days of the colony, the Governor, the Deputy Governor, the 
Magistrates in conjunction with the teaching elders " of the six 
towns next adjoining," and the President of the College consti- 
tuted the Board. In the days of the province the Governor, 
the Lieutenant-Governor, and the Council took the place of 
the colonial officials designated as Overseers, and when the con- 
stitution of the State was adopted in 1780, the State control 
was asserted through the provision in that instrument that the 
Governor, the Lieutenant-Governor, the Council, and the Senate 
were to be deemed the successors of the Board as previously 
constituted, so that even after the enlargement of the Board 
by adding fifteen Congregational clergymen and fifteen laymen, 
the State retained what was practically a predominant voice 
in the oversight of the affairs of the college until it was spe- 
cifically relinquished in 1866. If these facts are borne in mind, 
it will be seen that it was natural that the college should confer 
such honors as were at its disposal upon the governor, the ex 
officio president of the Board. If it be asked why the practice 
did not begin earlier, the answer will be found in the fact that 
in the days of the colony no honorary degrees were given. 
The first assertion on the part of the college of its right to 
exercise this power occurred in the infancy of the province 
during the presidency of Increase Mather, when those having 
the power to do so were inspired with the idea that it would 
be a good thing to confer the degree of S.T.D. on Increase 
Mather. Then followed eleven years during which Mather's 
name stood alone on the list of honorary degrees conferred 
by Harvard College, after which came a time when degrees 
were sparingly conferred upon learned men. The constant 
bickering between the Royal Governors and the Provincial 
Assembly sufficiently explain why the custom of thus recog- 
nizing the governor was not inaugurated while the Royal 
Governors were at the head of the government. With the 
adoption of the constitution of the State and the better feel- 
ing towards the elective governor came the opportunity for 
establishing the custom. John Hancock, the first governor, 
did not however receive a degree during his first term of office. 



but in 1792, when he was a second time called to the guberna- 
torial chair, the degree was conferred upon hira while in oflBce, 
thus marking him as the first in the series of governors who 
received the degree during service. It can therefore be said 
that the custom began with him. 

As we run over the list of the Presidents of the United 
States, we see that nine of them have received the degree of 
LL.D. from Harvard College. ^ Four of them — Monroe, Jack- 
son, Grant, and Hayes — were in office at the time when the 
degree was conferred. When Washington visited Cambridge 
in 1789, he had already been honored by the college with a 
degree. So also at that date had John Adams and Thomas 
Jefferson. It was not until Monroe visited Cambridge in 1817 
that the authorities of the college were brought face to face 
with the question of how a President upon whom a degree had 
not already been bestowed should be honored by the college. 
The precedent then established of conferring a degree as a 
part of the ceremony of reception has apparently been accepted 
as the basis for a custom. If Cleveland did not receive a 
degree in 1886, it was because he was unwilling to do so. 
The name of McKinley does not appear in the honorary roll 
of the Harvard Quinquennial, because his untimely death at 
Buffalo prevented the promised visit to Massachusetts. 

There have always been those who deplored the conferring 
of a degree as a mere ceremonial rite, based upon the fact that 
the recipient was the temporary holder of a certain office, 
whether governor or president. A degree granted under 
such circumstances does not of necessity represent the right 
of the receiver to the recognition in the field of letters to 
which the holder ought to be entitled. For this reason there 
have always been remonstrants against the practice, and if they 
have not been powerful enough to break up the custom in the 
case of Presidents of the United States, it is probably because 
of the feeling that it is an honor to the college to have the 
names of such distinguished men upon the catalogue. More- 
over, the argument has always been regarded as powerful that 
one intrusted by the people of the United States with the 
discretion to render inoperative such of the legislation at 

1 George Washington, 1776; John Adanos, 1781; Thomas Jefferson, 1787; 
James Monroe, 1817 ; John Quincy Adams, 1822 ; Andrew Jackson, 1833; Ulysses 
S. Grant, 1872 ; Rutherford B. Hayes, 1877 ; Theodore Roosevelt, 1902. 



6 

Washington during his term of office as met with his disap- 
proval was certainly to be regarded as worthy of a mere 
honorary degree of Doctor of Laws, whatever his literary 
attainments. 

It is quite probable that the conferring of the degree of 
LL.D. upon Jackson gave rise to more criticism and caused 
more genuine opposition than did all the other presidential 
degrees of the ex officio class taken together. The intensity of 
political partisanship at that time and the illiteracy of Jackson 
sufficiently explain the violence of this opposition. Josiah 
Quincy, an old-line Federalist in politics and a man who could 
hardly have been in sympathy with Jackson, was then at the 
head of the college. Neither the Corporation nor the Board 
of Overseers could have been suspected of partisanship in thus 
honoring Jackson. The Council and the Senate then formed a 
part of the Board, and if politics were to enter their discussions 
must have had the power to control. The party opposed to 
Jackson prevailed in both of these bodies. There were, how- 
ever, certain blunders made in calling the meeting of the Over- 
seers which was summoned for the purpose of confirming the 
degree, and these furnished the basis for an acrimonious dis- 
cussion in the Board. Details of this discussion found their 
way into the newspapers of the day, and caused partisans to 
array themselves on different sides of the question according 
as they approved or disapproved of the degree being granted 
by the college. The main arguments which underlie this dis- 
cussion are trite and uninteresting, but there is something of 
the picturesque in the story of the contest which may perhaps 
justify its reproduction to-day. 

It was in the spring of the year 1833, just after Jackson's 
triumphant re-election, that he concluded to follow in the foot- 
steps of Washington and Monroe and make a Northern presi- 
dential tour. No better time could have been selected by him. 
His attitude towards the nullification scheme of the South 
Carolinians had made him many friends in the North, while his 
avowed hostility to the United States Bank was not as yet 
accepted for its full value. 

It is not probable, however, that the question of Jackson's 
popularity or unpopularity had any influence upon the Cor- 
poration of Harvard College in the determination of the ques- 
tion of what they should do when he should reach Boston. 



For information as to the precedent established in 1817, 
when Monroe visited Cambridge, they turned to the records 
of the college and caused to be copied the several resolutions 
passed by the Fellows and the Overseers on the occasion of 
his reception. To do more or to do less than was done then 
would, it was argued, savor of partisanship. To repeat ex- 
actly the ceremonies of that occasion would be merely to 
accept an established custom. 

It was found that on the 12th of June, 1817, the Cor- 
poration passed the following vote : — 

" The President of the United States being expected to visit this part 
of the Union : — 

" Voted: That the President of the University^ be desired to pay his 
respects and those of the Corporation to President Monroe, and in the 
name of the Board, and of the several members of the University to 
request him to honor the University with his presence at such time as 
may be most convenient and agreeable." 

This vote was preliminary in its nature. If the President 
should decline, then there would be no question concerning 
the degree. Presumably Monroe formally accepted. At any 
rate, on the 30th of June, 1817, the Corporation voted to con- 
fer the degree "provided it be agreeable to him to receive 
it," and at the same time instructed the president of the uni- 
versity " to lay the vote relative to the degree before the Over- 
seers at a meeting to be called on Thursday next, that they 
may concur in the same, if they see fit, at that time, as the 
circumstances of the case have not allowed the usual notice to 
be given." 

These proceedings were repeated in the case of Jackson, 
the fidelity of reproduction extending even to an Overseers' 
meeting of which the usual notice could not be given. The 
necessity for such haste at the last moment may, perhaps, be 
explained by the uncertainty which attended Jackson's move- 
ments. Under the conditions which then controlled travel 
and mails, it was impracticable to convey information to him 

1 Quincy, in his History of Harvard University, quotes a paragraph from the 
State Constitution, and then adds, " The indiscriminate use of the terms ' College ' 
and 'University' in the Constitution of the Commonwealth was considered" as 
sanctioning the latter designation, which has ever since been applied to this insti- 
tution, except in such legal instruments as require its corporate name for validity." 
(Vol. ii. p. 176.) 



8 

of the purposes of the Corporation with any certainty that 
he would be able to forward a reply in advance of his own 

arrival. 

The preliminary vote requesting him to honor the Univer- 
sity with his presence was passed by the Corporation June 
3d, and to that vote was attached an additional clause to 
the effect that, in case of Jackson's " compliance, the same 
measures be adopted as in the case of President Monroe." 

It is obvious that this vote involved the tender of a degree 
to General Jackson in case of his " compliance," but the ele- 
ment of uncertainty on this point subsequently furnished an 
excuse, possibly an adequate excuse, for the neglect to com- 
municate this transaction to the Overseers for approval at 
their meeting three days thereafter on the 6th of June, On 
the 13th the Corporation, notwithstanding the fact that they 
had not yet heard from Jackson, voted to confer the degree 
provided it would be agreeable to the President to receive it, 
and requested the president of the university to call a meet- 
ing of the Board of Overseers at Cambridge on the day the 
President of the United States would be there in order that 
they might concur if they saw fit. The day when Jackson 
would arrive was then unknown, and provision was made in 
this vote for a hurried notice of the meeting, " as the circum- 
stances of the case," to follow the language of the vote, " would 
not allow the usual notices to be given." 

Jackson arrived in Boston Friday, June 21st; but so un- 
certain were his movements that it was not until the preceding 
Wednesday that Governor Lincoln had ascertained positively 
that he was coming. On Thursday, the 20th, actual knowl- 
edge of Jackson's impending approach being current in Bos- 
ton, the Corporation voted " that the President call a meeting 
of the Board of Overseers on Saturday next at such time 
and place as he may deem expedient to ascertain if they will 
confer a degree of LL.D. on Andrew Jackson if he should ac- 
cept the same." When this vote was passed. President Quincy 
was still ignorant whether Jackson would visit the university, 
or if he did whether it would be agreeable to him to receive a 
degree. To cover these points a letter was written, directed 
to Jackson at Providence, and provision was made for its deliv- 
ery by a special agent who was charged with ascertaining spe- 
cifically his answer to these two questions. This mission was 



9 

satisfactorily performed, and the answer was received on the 
21st, the same day that Jackson arrived in Boston. Mean- 
time, in order to make provision for a hurried call together 
of the Board of Overseers, Quincy had written to the secre- 
tary of the Board and secured forty blank notices of meeting 
signed by the secretary. 

The rules of the Board governing notices of meetings were 
at this time, according to Dr. Pierce the secretary, to be 
found in a report of a committee made to the Board in 1810, 
and in votes passed by the Board in 1822 and 1825. The 
prescribed method of notifying meetings prior to 1810 was 
set forth by the committee as follows : " by written or 
printed messages, left at the house or delivered in the hands 
of each member of the Board belonging to either of the six 
neighboring towns." In the report then submitted and 
accepted it was recommended that the written or printed 
notifications should be sent to all the elected members, also 
to the Governor, the President of the Senate, and the Speaker 
of the House, whenever the Council or the General Court 
were in session. May 7, 1822, it was voted to require the 
secretary, in addition to the rule then in force, whatever 
it was, to publish in at least two of the newspapers printed 
in Boston, notifications of meetings at least seven days pre- 
vious to such meetings, " except in those cases in which the 
urgency of the business to be transacted requires a shorter 
notice." June 10, 1825, it was voted that during the 
session of the General Court the secretary be required to 
send notices to the Governor asking him to invite the attend- 
ance of the Honorable Council, to the Lieutenant-Governor, 
to the President of the Senate asking him to invite the 
attendance of the Honorable Senate, to the Speaker of the 
House of Representatives, and to the permanent members of 
the Board who are not of the Council or Senate. 

It is evident, from what took place, that Dr. Pierce's inter- 
pretation of the rules as they stood upon the records was that 
personal notice was required only in case of residence in one 
of the six neighboring towns, and that publication in the news- 
papers was only called for in case there should be time to give 
the seven days' notice mentioned in the rule. 

It is clear that the rule of 1825 did not contemplate any 
special notice to the State officials who were ex officio mem- 



10 

bers of the Board, when the General Court was not in session ; 
but, on the other hand, there were certain senators, residents 
of the neighboring towns, who attended meetings of the 
Board under circumstances which indicated that they must 
have received notices of meeting under that clause of the 
standing rule which provided for notifying members resident 
in the six neighboring towns. 

In calling regular meetings it had been the custom for the 
secretary to avail himself of the services of the subordinates 
in the president's office, to secure the delivery of the notices. 
The forwarding at this time of the forty blank notices bearing 
his signature to the president was therefore, in accordance 
with this regular custom, except that, the time and place of 
meeting being contingent, it remained for the president to 
cause these blanks to be filled in. Moreover the secretary, 
even if he had wished to do so, could not have published the 
notice of meeting, since he did not know when or where it was 
to be held. Just who the forty to be notified were does not 
appear, but it would seem as though the notices were intended 
for members of any class, elective or ex officio, upon whom 
personal service could be made. 

Dr. Pierce records in his diary that Jackson appointed 
Monday, the 24th of June, for his reception at Cambridge. 
Quincy on the 20th — before he knew positively when 
Jackson was to arrive — had written Governor Lincoln at 
Worcester and enclosed a blank notice of meeting-. This 
letter did not reach Worcester until the governor had left 
for Boston, where he had much to do to arrange for the 
share of the State in Jackson's reception ; but Quincy, on the 
21st, on receiving Jackson's reply to his letter, had an in- 
terview with the governor, who agreed to call a meeting of 
the Council next morning at nine o'clock, when a simultane- 
ous meeting of the Board of Overseers, of which the Council 
formed a part, could be held. Quincy then went to Cambridge, 
where all the arrangements for the reception of Jackson and 
for notifying the members of the Board still required attention. 
It was obvious that he needed all the assistance that was at 
his command to mature his preparations in so short a time. 
He intrusted the filling out of the notices and all arrange- 
ments for their delivery to the steward of the college, giving 
him especial instructions to cause a personal delivery to be 



11 

made to each member of the Board residing iu either of the 
six neighboring towns. The steward, in turn, realizing that 
it was impossible for himself alone to make all these deliveries 
within the allotted time, passed on the labor of filling in some 
of the blanks and of their delivery to the only available person 
to whom he could turn for assistance. It was absolutely 
necessary that conveyances of some sort should be supplied 
if the deliveries were to be accomplished, but on looking 
about for horses it was found that but one was to be had in 
Cambridge. Everybody had gone to Boston to the reception 
of Jackson. Delegating the deliveries in Dorchester, Brook- 
line, and Roxbury to his assistant, the steward himself assumed 
Watertown and Charlestown for his personal field, and under 
the circumstances concluded that the only way of getting the 
Boston notices delivered was to violate his instructions and put 
them in the mail. This he did, being assured that they would 
be in the Boston Post-Office by six o'clock that evening. 

The result of delegating the duty of filling out the notices 
to a person unaccustomed to the work, and the violation of the 
instruction to make personal deliveries in Boston, were each of 
them disastrous. The failure to receive notices sent through 
the mail in time for the meeting was afterward complained of 
by some of the Overseers, and the despatch of a blank notice 
to Hon. James Trecothick Austin, a prominent anti-Federalist 
and an active politician, led to serious criticisms of the whole 
proceeding and caused animadversions to be cast upon the 
methods emploj'ed. Politics were then in a transitional stage. 
The Democratic party had in the recent election assumed some 
sort of shape as a national organization, although Jackson's 
re-election was largely a personal triumph, and the party was 
still known in some parts of the country under the name of 
the Republican, or Jackson Republican. The old Federalist 
party had, however, gone to pieces, and it is difficult to tell 
just where at that time one might expect to find men who had 
been devoted to it in its day of power. Governor Lincoln 
had been originally elected practically without opposition, but 
in the fall of 1832 he was opposed by a Democratic and an Anti- 
Masonry candidate. Edmund Quincy says that his father con- 
tinued to call himself a Federalist as long as he lived. He 
does not appear to have been an " abolitionist," but he took 
repeated occasion while in Congress to record his belief that 



12 

" slavery " was inconsistent with Republicanism. Austin was 
an active, aggressive politician. He was then Attorney- 
General of Massachusetts. He was chairman of the committee 
of organization of the National Republican Convention wliich 
met in Worcester October 5, 1833, and was chairman of the 
committee appointed to announce to John Davis of Worcester 
his nomination by that convention as governor. Such was 
the man to whom, in violation of the rule, was mailed on the 
21st a blank notice of a meeting which was actually to be held 
at the State House at nine o'clock A. M. on the 22d. To this 
must be added that Austin was violently opposed to Jackson, 
and was not disposed to admit the propriety of following the 
Monroe precedent. 

The Overseers' meeting was duly held in the Council 
Chamber at the appointed time, seventeen being present, but 
of the seventeen the governor and the lieutenant-governor 
counted two ; the councillors present counted seven ; there 
were two senators present, and President Quincy and Secre- 
tary Pierce, " permanent members of the Board," furnished two 
more. Out of the thirty elective Overseers three only can be 
identified among those who were present A standing rule of 
the Board required the submission, a month before Commence- 
ment, of honorary degrees voted by the Corporation. This was 
suspended, and the action of the Corporation in granting Jack- 
son a degree was confirmed without opposition. Austin was 
not present. He received his notice of the meeting with his 
morning mail, but found out when and where it was to be 
held too late to be present. He went to the State House 
only to find " the doors guarded by constables and prepara- 
tions making for the reception of President Jackson." 

These events occurred on the 22d. Jackson had appointed 
Monday the 24th for his reception at Cambridge, but he was 
not in good health and the fatigue of travelling was too much 
for him. In consequence of his indisposition the trip to Cam- 
bridge was postponed to Wednesday, the 26th, when the recep- 
tion took place and the degree was duly conferred. 

Quincy, in his address to the President, referred to the 
nullification proceedings as follows : — 

" Permit us, sir, on this occasion to congratulate you on the happy 
auspices under which your second term of administration has com- 
menced, on the disappearance of those clouds which of late hung so 



13 

heavily over the prospects of our Union, and which your firmness and 
prudence contributed so largely to dissipate." 

Jackson's approach to Boston, the probable manner of his 
official reception by the State, and the question of what would 
happen at Cambridge, naturally attracted public attention and 
stimulated discussion. The " Boston Daily Atlas " of June 
18th said : " Let them make known to the President that his 
high office claims our respect, but do not let them profess any 
respect for the man." 

On the 21st the same paper said, — 

" We see in the present visit a political object of which we are not 
the dupes. . . . The power of the President has not terrified us. Our 
best men have been driven from the country, our honorable men have 
been forced from the public service, but we have not crouched under the 
terror of his arm." 

The ceremonies at Cambridge were criticised or applauded 
by the newspapers according to the politics of the publication. 
" The Mercantile Journal " of the 26th concluded an account 
of the exercises at Cambridge that day as follows : — 

" It is the general opinion that nothing could have been more happy 
in its results than this visit. There was no adulation, no extravagance, 
no cheering, but everything was done in a modest, quiet, respectful 
manner, and to the perfect satisfaction, we believe, of all parties 
concerned." 

The " Atlas " of the 27th, after recounting the satisfactory 
nature of the ceremonies of reception at Boston, added : — 

" We cannot say so much of what was done in the neighborhood. 
How muchsoever of honor the ancient University of Cambridge may 
have reflected upon the President in conferring upon him the degree of 
LL.D. we must confess that, in our opinion, this proceeding reflects no 
honor upon the University." 

On the 1st of July the same paper called attention to the fact 
that the people had nothing to do with the reception of the 
President at Cambridge. " The Corporation of the University 
who had the sole management," said the writer, and here it 
will be noted that a bit of personal venom obtrudes in the 
discussion, " consists of but seven individuals, of whom three 
are said to govern the rest." 



14 

The " Globe " of July 7th justified the university for its 
course in granting the degree, not only because it followed the 
precedent already established as to the reception of Presidents, 
but also because degrees were conceded in foreign universities 
" to almost every species of eminence connected with intel- 
lectual and moral superiority in arts and in arms." The 
" Courier " of the 8th republished the comments of the 
" Globe," characterizing them as " judicious remarks in ref- 
erence to a proceeding which some seem disposed to make a 
subject of petulant ridicule." On the same day the " Courier " 
surrendered considerable space in its columns to a correspond- 
ent who signed himself " Candor," who justified the degree 
on the ground of precedents here and in England ; defended 
Jackson from illiteracy ; showed that the Doctorate of Law 
was conferred as well upon warriors and philanthropists as 
upon those learned in the Law, and after alluding to Jackson's 
fame in many countries in consequence of the victory at New 
Orleans, wound up his communication with the statement that 
" the oldest university in the country has had the independ- 
ence and justice to join in the general voice of praise." The 
" Courier " editorially called attention to this communication, 
and said that Jackson was " as justly entitled to the compli- 
ment of an honorary degree as many others who have received 
it without the accompaniment of so much sneering and deris- 
ion." The " United States Telegraph " and the " New York 
Commercial Advertiser " were mentioned as " among the for- 
ward in censuring the proceedings of Harvard University," 
and from the latter paper the " Courier " quoted a state- 
ment that Jackson was "alike incapable of giving a correct 
construction to a statute, or to write even a common letter 
with decent grammatical or orthographical accuracy." 

The " Courier " also quoted from the " National Litelli- 
gencer" a criticism of the act of the university, in which 
that paper said : — 

" To those at a distance, however, it looks too much like a refinement 
of adulation, a gratuitous dispensation of literary honors not called for, 
and hardly to be justified, even on the grounds of courtesy." 

To this quotation the " Courier " added : — 

" Now with all deference it seems to us that General Jackson is the 
very man of all others entitled to this honorary degree." 



15 

Squibs began to appear in the papers ridiculing the college 
for its part in the transaction. " Lectures on Political Econ- 
omy by Andrew Jackson LL.D." were referred to by the 
" Atlas." Under the heading, " Doctor Jacksoniana " the 
same paper on the 3d of August reprinted from the " New 
York Commercial Advertiser " an anecdote the pith of which 
rested upon the allegation that Jackson in ordering some 
flour had written, " Thee flower I wish to have of the 
Virginia brand." This was made the basis for a comment 
upon " the absurdity of conferring a literary degree upon a 
man so notoriously ignorant as Doctor Jackson," and the 
whole was introduced with the following preamble : " We 
have been furnished with another delicate flower to add to 
the bouquet of Jackson literature which we take leave to 
present to the learned faculty of Harvard University." 

Parton, in his Life of Jackson, speaking of the conferring 
of the degree, says : — 

" These ceremonies, of course, gave the wits of the opposition an 
opportunity — which they improved. Major Jack Downing,^ whose 
humorous letters amused the whole country this summer, records that 
when the President had finished his speech at Downingville, he cried 
out to him, ' You must give them a little Latin, Doctor^ Whereupon 
the President, nothing abashed, ' off hat agin,' and thus resumed, ' E 
pluribus unum, my friends, sine qua non,' " 

The humor of this joke has survived, but in its present form 
is associated with the exercises at Cambridge. In a recent re- 
view of a Life of Jackson, in the " Spectator" of June 2, 1906, 
the writer says : — 

" When the Harvard degree of D.C.L. was conferred on the Presi- 
dent in a Latin Oration, he modestly declared that the only Latin he 
knew was ' E pluribus unum.' This was travestied into an eloquent 
harangue with the striking peroration : ' Caveat emptor ; corpus delicti ; 
ex post facto ; dies irae ; usque ad nauseam ; ursa major ; sic semper 
tyrannis ; quid quo pro quo ; requiescat in pace.' " 

The " Salem Register " of July 10, 1833, reported the follow- 
ing as one of the toasts given at a public dinner at Salem 

1 The Downing letter was reprinted in the "Boston Semi-Weekly Courier" 
of July 8, 1833, from the "New York Daily Advertiser," the letter being dated 
June 29, 1833, Downingville. Major Jack Downing was the nom-de-plume of 
Seba Smith, of Maine. 



16 

on the Fourth of July : " Andrew Jackson — In war a hero 
— In politics a statesman ; in literature LL.D. and A.S.S."^ 

Such are some of the specimens of humor and of venom with 
which the newspapers teemed for a time after the degree was 
conferred upon Jackson ; and lest the ephemeral character of 
these thrusts should disappear too soon, a copper medal or 
token was struck bearing on one side the effigy of an ass 
labelled LL.D.2 

The wrath of Austin, nursed by these contemporaneous re- 
minders and stimulated by the excitement of the gubernato- 
rial contest in the fall of 1833, when John Quincy Adams, the 
Anti-Masonry candidate, pressed the " Nationals " very close 
and with the aid of the vote for the " Jacksonian " candidate 
threw the election into the legislature, bided its time and after 
politics had settled a little struck its blow. The opportunity 
came at a meeting of the Overseers held on the 9th of Jan- 
uary, 1834, when the Attorney-General moved that a com- 
mittee be appointed to inquire whether in the calling of special 
meetings there had been a departure from the rules prescribed 
by the Board. He referred to the fact, well known to the 
Board, that such a meeting had been held where notices of 
the meeting did not reach many of the Overseers until after 
the transaction of the business for which the Board was con- 
vened, and he called upon the secretary for the rules of the 
Board for calling meetings. Hon. George Blake, senator 
from Suffolk, thought such a committee unnecessary. The 
secretary, however, in response to Mr. Austin's request for 

1 The Med. Fac. conferred the following honorary degree upon the President : 
"Andreas Jackson, Major General in bello ultimo Americano, Et Nov. Orleans 
Heros fortissimus ; et ergo nunc Praesidis Kerumque Feed. Muneris Candidatus et 
' Old Hickory,' M.D. et M.U.D. 1827, Med. Fac. honorarius, et 1829 Prases Re- 
rumpub. Feed, et LL.D. 1833." A Collection of College Words and Customs by 
B. H. Hall, Cambridge, 1866, p. 319. 

2 This is described by Dr. Malcolm Storer, Curator of Coins, Harvard Uni- 
versity, in the following terms : — 

" The ' Hard Times Token ' or ' Jackson Copper ' you inquire about is described 
as follows : — 

Obverse — Inscription — i take the responsibility. 

Type — An iron-bound chest from which protrudes the upper half of a man 
with shock hair (Jackson) in military uniform, holding sabre in right hand and 
money bag in left : 

Keverse — Inscription — the constitution as i understand it. 

Type — An Ass with on its side ll.d. Above, roman firmness. Below, 

VETO." 



17 

information, stated what the rules were, and added that in 
the case of the onl}' special meeting of which he knew he 
had furnished blank notices to the president to be by him 
filled out and forwarded. 

President Quincy inquired as to the object of the gentle- 
man. Mr. Austin replied that his motive was general. He 
hoped no one would shirk from the inquiry. Quincy, who 
seems to have foreshadowed this investigation, then read a 
written statement relative to the Overseers' meeting of the 
22d of June, setting forth in substance the facts which 
have just been stated, the reading being for the purpose, 
he said, not of preventing inquiry, but of avoiding misap- 
prehension. He then went on to say that Governor Lincoln 
had received on the morning of the meeting a blank notice. 
For this neglect an explanation was made, but no apology was 
offered. The emergency of the case was its own apology. 
Nor had he any apology to offer to Mr. Austin for the blank 
notice sent to him. He had tendered the same explanation to 
him. He regretted that Mr. Austin had not I'eceived his notice 
and that he had not accepted the explanation. He had no 
objection to the appointment of the committee. 

Judge Davis ^ sought to pour oil on the waters. If any in- 
quiry was to be made, let it be general. He commended the 
fidelity, integrity, and promptness of the president of the uni- 
versity in the discharge of the duties which had devolved upon 
him, and he hoped that the gentleman who made the motion 
would, with a due regard for good-humor and courtesy, let this 
business subside. 

Senator Everett ^ of Suffolk was not disposed to accept this 
solution. The motion was general, there was no inference of 
impropriety on the part of the president of the university, 
but it was a fact that there had been a meeting for which no 
notice had been given to a considerable number of members. 
He himself had not received his notice through the post-office 
until two days after the meeting. The explanation of the 
president was satisfactory as far as it went, but the failure to 
publish notice, even if the time were short, required explana- 
tion. There was some discussion on this point, the president 
and secretary arguing that under the rule publication was not 

1 Hon. .John Davis, a native of Plymouth, but then living in Boston. 

2 Alexander H. Everett. 



18 

under the circumstances required, and Mr. Everett contend- 
ing that it was. 

The support of Everett inspirited Austin with renewed vigor, 
and he returned to the assault in a bellicose state of mind. 
His motion did not refer to any particular meeting, he said, 
and he presumed that there would be no objection to a gen- 
eral inquiry whether the meetings of the Board had been held 
formally. The president had apparently anticipated such an 
inquiry and came prepared for it. The paper which he read, 
though nominally it did not offer objection to an inquiry, 
was actually an answer to the questions under discussion, 
and would have the effect of preventing an inquiry. He 
(Austin) was not ready on the moment to answer this pre- 
pared statement. He had not intended to name this particu- 
lar transaction in connection with his motion. " But," said he, 
"since it has been brought into the discussion I will say that 
this subject of the creation of a literary noblesse, raised up by 
that gentleman, by means of University degrees, may admit 
of a good deal of inquiry. To one man he gives a learned 
degree for his literary reputation, to another for making 
picture books, and to another it would puzzle the Corporation 
or any one else to tell for what." The Board of Overseers, he 
said, was the popular branch of the university government. 
It was their duty to impose checks " upon the seven who 
managed the University." The case of Monroe did not afford 
a precedent. The rules have been entirely modified since his 
day. It may have been difficult to notify the Board, but they 
were not to be set aside because a horse could not be found 
to carry a message. He then claimed that the president of the 
university without the consent of the Overseers tendered a de- 
gree to Jackson if he would accept it. " The Corporation," he 
said, " assume to act for the whole Board. They say to Presi- 
dent Jackson, ' We are the Archons of literature in Massa- 
chusetts, and we consider you worth}' of the highest literary 
degree we can confer upon you, and we promise we will give it 
to you if you will accept it. We have promised, and the Board 
will perform. We will get our friends together, and they 
will confirm what we have done.'" 

He then went on to discuss the question of notices, ana- 
lyzed the composition of the Board meeting of the 22d, 
and alluded to his own experience when he made the effort 



19 

to attend the meeting. With regard to the blank notices, 
he said : " A measure is to be got up, as in the case referred 
to, about which there may be a difference of opinion. Blank 
notices are issued, and so it happens that some gentlemen 
receive their notices who are favorable to the measure ; and so 
it happens that others who might be supposed not to be favor- 
able to it get no notice or get it too late. All by accident, no 
doubt. I am only supposing a case." Passing then to the 
personal explanation made to him, he said : " It was the viola- 
tion of the rules, which required explanation to the whole 
Board. No, sir! let the committee be appointed and let the 
president have the benefit of the report of that committee in 
his favor, if he can get it." 

This motion was carried without discussion, and the presi- 
dent named for the committee Messrs. J. T. Austin, A. H. 
Everett, and G. Blake (the last in place of Judge Davis, 
who declined to serve). These proceedings were reported 
in full and published in the " Daily Advocate," Saturday, 
January 11, 1834. 

Then for a brief period Dr. Pierce and Governor Lincoln 
were kept busy answering letters from Quincy and Austin. 
The chairman of the committee wanted information from the 
secretary of the Board as to existing rules for the notifica- 
tion of meetings, as to who was present on the 22d, and 
also as to what degrees had been conferred during his 
(Austin's) term of office as Overseer. He sought to ascertain 
from the governor all about the blank notice which had been 
sent him by Quincy, and he asked the president to furnish him 
with a copy of the statement read to the Board. The presi- 
dent of the university wrote repeatedly to the governor, 
seeking to derive some aid from him on points connected with 
the notice sent to Worcester, where the governor's memory 
was not so serviceable as the president desired. It was 
evident from the correspondence that the governor was dis- 
gusted with the attack on Quincy, but in the press of business 
consequent upon Jackson's reception he had not bestowed 
much thought on the matter. The secretary sent the presi- 
dent a copy of his correspondence with Austin, gave him a 
detailed account of what he remembered concerning an inter- 
view with Austin in the presence of Dr. Porter^ at the State 

1 Rev. Dr. Eliplialet Porter, a Fellow of the College from 1818 to 1833. He died 
while this discussion was going on. 



20 

House when Austin arrived too late for the meeting, on which 
occasion Quincy explained to Austin how the omission in his 
notice must have occurred. The secretary also gave a copy 
of the vote of the Overseers recommending the Corporation to 
lay their votes conferring honorary degrees before the Board 
at least one month before Commencement. 

On the 23d of January the report of the committee was 
presented. It was practically an arraignment of the Corpo- 
ration for usurping the functions of the Overseers and pre- 
venting the Board from exercising their right of ratification in 
the case of honorary degrees. The committee claimed that the 
method in which the meeting in question was notified was not in 
accord with the rules of the Board, and rehearsed the various 
defects in the notices and in their delivery, to which their 
attention had been called. The claim was advanced that the 
interests of the university were not at stake, and that in the 
interval between the 13th and the 22d there was abundant 
time to have called a meeting in the ordinary way. The 
right of the Overseers to be consulted on the question of 
honorary degrees was asserted. The committee denied that 
their investigation was devoted to the disclosure of personal 
responsibility for what had occurred. Their only object was 
to vindicate the authority of the Board and to protest against 
any invasion of their rights. The views of the committee 
were tersely stated as follows: When the "Board are not 
legally notified they cannot legally assemble, and when they 
do not legally assemble they cannot legally act." The report 
called attention to the fact that there was a standing rule of 
the Board directing that no vote of the Corporation conferring 
an honorary degree should be acted upon until thirty days after 
it is communicated to the Board. So tenacious had the Board 
been in defending its rights on this point, that on one occasion 
the honorary degrees were deferred until the next Commence- 
ment because the Board was determined to adhere to its 
rules. The report concluded with the statement that the 
meeting held on the 22d of June was called and holden with- 
out such notice as is required by their rules, orders, and 
usages. 

On the 24th the " Atlas" asked, " Why was not this report 
ordered to be printed?" On the 8th of February the same 
paper said : — 



21 

" We have tried to gratify the curiosity of our readers by presenting 
to them a copy of the report now under discussion by the Board of 
Overseers of Harvard College, but have been unable to succeed. At 
the close of the meetings it is carefully carried to Brookline by the 
secretary and is as inaccessible as a black letter book in the library. 
We have applied for a copy of the report to the chairman of the com- 
mittee, but he does not feel at liberty to permit us to publish it without 
the direction of the Board." 

The article then refers to the fact that on the 3d of June 
the Corporation indicated by their vote an intention of con- 
ferring the degree, but failed to put the vote in such form as 
to be laid before the Overseers at their meeting on the 6th of 
the same month. Nor was any reference made at this Over- 
seers' meeting to what had taken place at the Corporation 
meeting three days before. " We care but little," said the 
" Atlas," " about the degree. We care less what have been 
the rules of the Overseers, but arbitrary exertions of power 
are as little to our taste in the president of the College as in 
the president of the Union, and if the rules of the Board 
are so uncertain that everything depends on the discretion 
of the executive, it is high time these rules were amended." 

The quarrel closed with the rejoinder of the president in the 
Board of Overseers. It was a long and labored defence. He 
had in the meantime consulted Simon Greenleaf on the law 
relative to giving notices of meetings to incorporated bodies, 
he had run down the alleged defective notices, and made up 
his mind that the blank notice to Austin was, after all, the 
only one actually issued in this defective form,i and by these 
means had satisfied himself that the call for the meeting was 
not vitiated by this mistake. At great length he vindicated 
the "seven Archons of literature" from the aspersions cast 
upon them and denied that they had promised a degree to the 
President. They had simply invited him " to accept the usual 
lienors which in like cases his predecessors had accepted." 
This was not a commitment of the Board of Overseers. The 
Corporation were "the constituted guardians of the honor 
and interests of the University." They were not party men, 
and if they acted on party principles they were false to the 

1 It will be remembered that the blank notice sent to Governor Lincoln was 
enclosed in a letter to Worcester, sent before the time of the meeting had been 
fixed. 



22 

interests with which they were intrusted. Their action in 
tendering the same honors as had been received by other 
presidents simply showed how they wished the university to 
stand in relation to that officer. On the other liand, the 
Board of Overseers is composed largely of men chosen by the 
people as representatives of the parties into which they are 
divided. In such a Board party feelings, personal antipathies, 
or private griefs may exist and have influence. Suppose the 
Overseers had refused the degree, would not the refusal under 
such circumstances be laid where it would belong, upon their 
shoulders and not on the university ? 

He vigorously attacked Austin for making misleading state- 
ments in his report, in the recapitulation of the rules and in his 
sweeping assertions as to the mode adopted of mailing notices, 
and asserted that the committee, while nominally claiming 
that it was not their purpose to sit in judgment on any officer 
connected with the university, had skilfully constructed their 
report so that there was an accumulation of blame, real and 
apparent, which must fall somewhere. In response to the 
assertion of the committee that they wished to have it under- 
stood then and at all times that the intervention of the Board 
was not a nominal, but a real, substantial, and active part of the 
university government, he alleged that every step taken by 
the Corporation was in support of this claim of the com- 
mittee, and in conclusion he asserted that with the full 
consciousness that there had been nothing wanting on the 
part of the president to secure the real, substantial, and 
efficient action of the Board of Overseers, he submitted the 
matter with entire confidence to the wisdom of the honorable 
Board. 

It was quite natural that some of the more aggressive of 
the faculty should wish to take a hand in this contest which 
was attracting so much attention and concerning which, of 
course, they must have known every detail. On the 18th 
of February, 1834, Henry R. Cleveland and C. C. Felton ad- 
dressed a joint note to President Quincy, offering their services 
to prepare a statement of the whole matter for publication in 
case he should wish to have anything published. 

The report of the committee came up for discussion at 
meetings held February 6th and February 13th. In the end 
the " very satisfactory explanations " of the president, " under 



23 

the peculiar circumstances " then existing, were accepted, and 
the whole matter was indefinitely postponed. 

What contemporary opinions of this transaction were may 
in part be inferred from a quotation from the diary of John 
Quincy Adams.^ President Quincy had informed Mr. Adams 
that he would be invited to be present at the ceremonies at 
Cambridge. Concerning this he makes the following note in 
his diary under date of June 18, 1833 : — 

" I said that the personal relations in which President Jackson had 
chosen to place himself with me were such that I could hold no inter- 
course of a friendly character with him. I could therefore not accept 
an invitation to attend upon this occasion. And, independent of that, 
as myself an affectionate child of our Alma Mater, I would not be 
present to witness her disgrace in conferring her highest literary honors 
upon a barbarian who could not write a sentence of grammar and 
hardly could spell his own name. Mr. Quincy said he was sensible 
how utterly unworthy of literary honors Jackson was, but the Cor- 
poration thought it was necessary to follow the precedent and treat 
him precisely as Mr. Monroe, his predecessor, had been treated. As 
the people of the United States had seen fit to make him their Presi- 
dent, the Corporation thought the honors which they conferred upon 
him were compliments due to the station by whomsoever it was occu- 
pied. Mr. Quincy said it was thought also that the omission to show 
the same respect to President Jackson which had been shown to Mr. 
Monroe would be imputed to party spirit — which they were anxious 
to avoid. I was not satisfied with these reasons ; but it is college 
ratiocination and college sentiment. Time-serving and sycophancy 
are qualities of all learned and scientific institutions." 

Edmund Quincy says : ^ — 

"At the time of the visit of President Monroe in 1817, it had been 
thought due to his high station that the University should confer upon 
him her highest degree. In the light of this precedent my father con- 
sidered it the duty of the University to do the same honor to President 
Jackson. The Corporation were of the same opinion, as were such of 
the Overseers as could be got together at an informal meeting. . . . 

" This academic action was made the occasion of much ridicule and of 
many virulent attacks upon my father. Party spirit which had slept 
for the moment soon awoke again, and the same outside influences 
which the next year fostered the intestine disturbances of the College 
seized the occasion to cast odium on him." 

1 Memoirs of John Quincy Adams, vol. viii. pp. 546, 547. 

2 Life of Josiah Quincy, by Edmund Quincy, pp. 453, 454. 



24 

The violence of the passions aroused by these events was 
entirely disproportioned to their cause. The mistakes of 
Quincy, the blunders of his subordinates, and the erroneous 
statement of the rules of the Board by Austin in the report all 
contributed to the confusion of the situation. To be charged, 
as Quincy was, with arranging the meeting of the Overseers 
so that ordy his friends could respond was probably the last 
thing in the world that he ever expected to be laid at his door. 
Independent, upright, and almost aggressive in his assertion 
of the right of individual freedom of action on all points, it 
was especially humiliating to him to find that his own course 
of action and the contributory blunders of others had led to 
these suspicions. From all this contumely it is evident that 
he would have escaped if he had referred the whole matter to 
the Board of Overseers at their meeting on the 6th of June, 
when the matter was practically just as ripe for determina- 
tion as it was at the special meeting on the 22d, when it 
was impossible that the elective members should be fully 
represented. 



A. 



LE N '10 



